Climate Change Summary - 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531159/Antarctic-crew-build-ice-helipad-help-rescuers.html

This photo captures the state of the "consensus" about climate change as of the end of 2013. Like these explorers, many advocated of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have found themselves trapped by facts.
The photo shows a ship grounded in thick ice. A group of climate scientists, climate tourists, and at least one "green" legislator, went on a journey to Antarctica to observe the impact on climate change, including the melting ice caps. Apparently they were unaware that sea ice is expanding and nearing, if not exceeding, record levels. Now their vessel is trapped in unusually thick ice and they are being rescued by helicopter. Another ice breaker sent to rescue them is itself stuck in the ice.
Some climate change advocates blame this thick ice in wind storms. Others blame global warming.
I won't get into all the details now, but during 2013 I've had some debates online with contributors to skepticalscience.com, as well as others who take the "consensus" AGW position, all of whom have taken an emotional, almost religious position that refuses to accept the facts of what we're seeing in the climate.
The models used by the IPCC continue to diverge from reality. This should not be surprising; the weather and climate are far too complex to be modeled effectively. For a good explanation of why, watch this:

http://notrickszone.com/2013/12/30/leading-expert-modeler-tells-why-climate-models-hardly-better-than-hocus-pocus-welcome-to-wonderland/

http://notrickszone.com/2013/12/29/veteran-meteorologist-calls-climate-scientists-claims-that-more-sea-ice-proves-global-warming-just-really-despicable/

I've also discussed these issues with hundreds of students in my classes this year. I suspect that 2014 will continue to provide hard data that demonstrates the futility of the IPCC models and forecasts, and the counterproductive impact of so many policies being adopted to address AGW. I'll post more on all that later.

Meanwhile, I wish everyone a Happy 2014!

Consumption graphic

The concept of "carbon footprint" is useful but misleading, as I've explained before.
Still, here's a fun graphic that illustrates some of the concepts:



http://www.internationalbusinessguide.org/hungry-planet/

New unbiased environmental blog

If you follow environmental news, you know it is difficult (impossible) to find unbiased news sources. For example, I like to follow http://ens-newswire.com/, but they have a definite agenda that is more political than scientific. The same is true of every news source I've found, including NASA, EPA, and others.

My approach to environmental issues is to focus on facts and science, and then apply ethics to come up with appropriate policies and strategies. It's critical to distinguish between the two, but I haven't found any sources that do so. If anyone knows of a source that takes this approach, I'd like to know about it.

Because I haven't found any such sources or blogs or book or media, I'm going to start my own. I write multiple comments about environmental issues every day and realized I should archive them. Instead of cluttering this blog, I'm going to archive them at http://theenvironmentbook.blogspot.com/

I invite comments and discussions.